2 WARDS TO DAM FLOOD OF FLIERS

As news spread this week about a couple of North Side aldermen proposing to restrict how and where businesses could distribute promotional fliers in their wards, Adam Mrowka trembled.

"Where does it stop?" he asked. "Today, they say not in these two wards (the 43d and 44th). Tomorrow, they push the envelope a little bit and before you know it, our 1st Amendment rights to speech are totally wiped out."

The reaction, he admitted, was an overreaction.

But Mrowka, founder of the marketing firm Chicago Direct, was not alone in voicing concern over an ordinance that some fear will shutter numerous small businesses that rely on spreading their word the old-fashioned way--door to door--and rob a growing industry of a huge consumer pool in the congested and trendy North Side neighborhoods targeted by the ordinance.

The restriction clips the wings of flier distributors at the end of the month.

The fliers--everything from restaurant menus to political handbills to promotions for new businesses--are impossible to miss.

In some neighborhoods, they seem to hang from every door knob. They clutter vestibules and litter sidewalks.

And yet, they're an extremely potent marketing tool, reaching well over a third of the nation's households each year, according to Ken Bradstreet, executive director of the Association of Alternate Postal Systems, whose 120 or so members annually target upwards of 35 million homes.

The association does not tally its members' sales, making it impossible to accurately track revenue for the industry. But Bradstreet said a conservative estimate would put yearly gross revenues near the $1 billion mark.

"It's very, very effective," said Bradstreet.

Perhaps especially for the little guy, such as Nick Pianetto of Pat's Pizzeria on North Sheffield Avenue, which spends roughly a third of his $50,000-plus advertising budget blanketing the North Side with menus and other promotional pieces.

"This is the poor man's direct mail," explained Mrowka, whose firm is among the city's top door-to-door distributors.

"That mom and pop on the corner can't afford to put an ad in (the newspaper)," or go the more conventional direct mail route, he said.

The ordinance, which was proposed by Alds. Charles Bernardini (43rd) and Bernard Hansen (44th), was passed by the City Council Wednesday.

While it does not ban promotional fliers altogether--allowing, for instance, for hand-to-hand distribution--it does make hanging the materials on the doorknobs of apartments or other dwellings with exterior security locks illegal beginning July 30.

It allows advertisers to continue to hang fliers on doors of single-family homes.

The ordinance further forbids businesses from sliding the fliers under doors or wedging them in the door jamb in such a way that a building's security system could be compromised.

Violators will be assessed fines ranging from $25 to $200. Certain emergency utility and governmental fliers are exempt.

While acknowledging that fliers are most associated with the mess they leave behind--it is estimated that less than 10 percent of the pieces are used-- Hansen and Bernardini cited safety as the main thrust driving the ordinance, noting that fliers rubber-banded to doorknobs can easily obstruct a door lock and offer easy access to a would-be thief, or worse.

"Having fliers jammed in doorways is unsightly and potentially unsafe," acknowledges John Fritchey, a state legislator and lawyer representing several of the targeted marketing companies.

Still, "to point to one or two cases, and to obliterate an industry because of that is an improper reaction." The restriction raises serious constitutional questions, said Fritchey.